Opinions on Best Graders

[ovrszd]

They work good when they work. My D-8 air conditioner went on the fritz today. Yeah yeah, air condition in the middle of winter you say!! It get plenty hot in the cab with all of that glass. I'll run the air just about all of the time. I had to open the side glass and it was getting dusty inside pretty quick. I hate that too. I like to keep it clean inside. Do you have very much of that red rocky dirt up there? We have a lot here and some of it is flint rock and gets sharp as razor blades sometimes. I think I only have a few more weeks on the dozer and then I'm back on a blade. Hey I might have to learn all over hahaha..

I run the AC compressor all the time, regardless of temps. Keeps the humidity down in the cab to help with window fogging.

Our dirt is either Missouri Clay or black top soil. Mostly clay. Sometimes our quarries will get into a thin layer of flint rock in their pit. Everyone complains when that happens because as you said it splinters very sharp. People start having a lot of flat tires from driving on it.

 

[Radrock]

I run the AC compressor all the time, regardless of temps. Keeps the humidity down in the cab to help with window fogging.

Our dirt is either Missouri Clay or black top soil. Mostly clay. Sometimes our quarries will get into a thin layer of flint rock in their pit. Everyone complains when that happens because as you said it splinters very sharp. People start having a lot of flat tires from driving on it.

Yeah I run mine just about all the time too. We run 20 ply tires on our blades. It helps a lot. They sure can get cut up a lot on some jobs.

 

[1newbie]

Too new to start a new thread, but anyone have input on best compact grader? Thinking fiat allis 65c or champion c80 to finish off building pads. Site is too tight for a 140 sized blade, but too big to finish with a skip loader. Would be my first blade.....

 

[bigbob]

Had to plow snow in NH today.

 

[Bluetop Man]

fiat allis 65c or champion c80 to finish off building pads

A building site has to be fairly big to justify a motor grader on account the front tires are always going over the edge. For that reason I always preferred a small six-way-blade dozer over a grader for such work.

Good luck finding a bluetop dozer operator these days.

'Course, with these new whizz-bang GPS systems of today, that won't be such a problem.

I never got too far along with GPS, but did manage to master the one system I was exposed to. While it was one of the earlier editions, it did work, albeit slowly, but it was accurate to the max. I found two unequivocable things about GPS grading.

One, the operator must be trained and allowed to access the the device and tune it to his needs. "Surveyors" and "foremen" and "superintendents" who want to be in sole control of the settings are the reason GPS has failed for many companies.
WTF do they know about grading out?

Two, I will never, ever wait on a GD stake runner again. If an outfit does not have GPS on it's finish machines, I won't take the job. F-'em.

 

[BDFT]

Anyone have any experience with the JD 870's or the big Volvos? I might be in the market this spring and there are some low hour 870's, 872's and 960 Volvos kicking around for reasonable prices. Far less than a 14H anyway. I will just be grading haul roads and plowing snow so brute strength is more important than finesse.